HUMAN ZOOS
THE INVENTION OF THE SAVAGE
11/29/11 – 06/03/12
West Mezzanine
General Curator : Lilian Thuram
Scientific curators :
Pascal Blanchard & Nanette Jacomijn Snoep
HUMAN ZOOS, The invention of the savage unveils the history of women, men and children
brought from Africa, Asia, Oceania and America to be exhibited in the Western world in circus
numbers, theatre or cabaret performances, fairs, zoos, parades, reconstructed villages or
international and colonial fairs. The practice started in the 16th Century royal courts and
continued to increase until the mid-20th Century in Europe, America and Japan.
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* SUMMARY
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EDITORIAL BY STEPHANE MARTIN
President of the musée du quai Branly
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EDITORIAL BY LILIAN THURAM
General curator of the exhibition
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FOREWARD BY PASCAL BLANCHARD
Scientific curator of the exhibition
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FOREWARD BY NANETTE JACOMIJN SNOEP
Scientific curator of the exhibition
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TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION
ACTE I – THE DISCOVERY OF THE OTHER
Reporting, collecting, displaying
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ACTE II – MONSTERS & EXOTIC BEINGS
To observe, classify, order
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Scene I : The construction of the notion of “race”
Scene II : The distant and the deformed put on stage
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ACTE III – THE SPECTACLE OF DIFFÉRENCE
To recruit, exhibit, diffuse
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Scene I : The professionalization of the exhibition
Scene 2 : The Amerindian conquest of the world
Scene 3 : Exotic Artists
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ACTE IV – RACIAL AND COLONIAL STAGE SETS
To exhibit, measure, produce
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Scene I : Zoological gardens
Scene 2 : Exotic itinerant villages
Scene 3 : Universal and colonial exhibitions
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EPILOGUE
A progress movement during the course of the 1930s
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CURATORSHIP OF THE EXHIBITION
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AROUND THE EXHIBITION
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International symposium “Around human zoos”
Exhibition catalogue
Exhibition special issue
The audio guide
Exhibition guided tour
Before Exhibitions
The question box
Pedagogical actions
Cinema
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HISTORY AND PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEE DU QUAI BRANLY
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LILIAN THURAM FOUNDATION – EDUCATION AGAINST RACISM
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PRATICAL INFORMATIONS
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* EDITORIAL BY STEPHANE MARTIN
President of the musée du quai Branly
“From sordid to commercial, reaching the heights
of indecency, human zoos opened the door to
realms of imagination that this exhibition
masterfully reconstructs.”
Today
it seems hard to understand how people could
perceive, demean and display human beings like objects, and
how that phenomenon could trigger such fascination over the
centuries.
From sordid to commercial, reaching the heights of indecency,
human zoos, circuses, fairs, ethnic exhibits, freak shows and
other spectacles staged the exploitation and dispossession of
certain humans by other humans. They opened the door to
realms of imagination that this exhibition masterfully
reconstructs.
Ever since the Renaissance, non-Western civilizations have sparked curiosity and disgust, attraction
and repulsion, with equal intensity. The many works on show in Human Zoos, The Invention of the
Savage offer a journey through these “appearances” and provide a more subtle grasp of the
arbitrary nature of ways of looking. Dotted with fascinating multimedia installations, the exhibition
presents no fewer than five hundred items and documents – marshalling a wide spectrum of media
to provide an accurate idea of how the “Other” was represented in all its complexity and diversity.
As Pascal Blanchard, one of the curators of the show, has aptly put it, “The entire period of human
zoos corresponds to an absence of referents in the West with respect to alterities.”
Indeed, it was an implicit question of “underscoring difference, of drawing an invisible line between
normal and abnormal”, of thinking about the borderline between “us” and other individuals
considered to be exotic, wild, or savage. Such wildness furthermore legitimized an eroticizing of the
body, viewed either as a transposed fantasy or a distorting, distressing mirror. The “monsters” are
not necessarily the ones we think, as clearly demonstrated by the imagery associated with them.
This exhibition is the fruit of a meeting between Blanchard – a specialist in colonial history with its
“fractures” – and French football star Lilian Thuram, who has lent his name, image and convictions
to an operation designed to shed some light on this often overlooked aspect of a relatively recent
past. My thanks go to both of them, as well as to Nanette Snoep, Curator Historical Collections at
the Musée du Quai Branly, who put so much skill and courage into making this show a success.
Stéphane Martin
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* FOREWORD BY LILIAN THURAM
General curator of the exhibition
Ever since I was a child, I have felt moved to question certain
prejudices, and this questioning has led me to an interest in
slavery, colonization, and the sociology, economics and history
of racism. Ten years ago, thanks to Pascal Blanchard and the
researchers working with him, I learned about human zoos. This
was a revelation. I was surprised by the magnitude of this
phenomenon which, over the years, developed into a mass
culture. The images of these men, women and children –
exposed and exhibited, shown and humiliated – appeared on
postcards, posters, paintings, crockery and souvenirs. Looking at
the films or photographs of the exhibitions, we see families
strolling around, children smiling: happy spectators.
“Knowledge of the human zoos helped me
understand just that little bit better why certain
racialist ideas continue to exist in societies like
ours.”
The public was at a show, denying the humanity of these people: the humanity of Saartjie Baartman
in the early nineteenth century, of Ota Benga in the early twentieth, and of the great-grandparents
of my friend and fellow-footballer Christian Karembeu, exhibited in the Jardin d’Acclimatation in
Paris and in a German zoo, in 1931. All these stories are part of our common heritage. But they are
still too little known. Much more remains to be written, shown, told, and passed on.
Knowledge of the human zoos helped me understand just that little bit better why certain racialist
ideas continue to exist in societies like ours. For when I go into schools to talk about racism,
children still do not know that there are not several different races, but just one species: Homo
sapiens. How many people still think, consciously or unconsciously, that the colour of a person’s
skin determines their qualities or faults? Do Blacks run faster? Do Whites swim faster?
Today, after two years of work and research, I think it is an extraordinary thing that the leading
international specialists on human zoos, colonial exhibitions and world’s fairs, on the history of
circuses, science and theatre, have contributed to this catalogue which helps us to better
understand our present.
They explain the racist prejudices, with their hierarchies and contempt, that live on in our society.
These images that, yesterday, “invented the savage”, must today be used to deconstruct those
patterns of thought which propagate the belief in the existence of types of human being that are
superior to others.
Even today, for many communities, the best way of defining themselves is to oppose themselves to
others: “They are like that and we are not.”
Are we not capable of enjoying self-esteem without denigrating the Other? The encounter with
alterity may be sexual, cultural or religious, but it can also concern our partner, sister, brother,
friend, son or daughter and should be a process of permanent negotiation.
After all, are we not constantly negotiating with ourselves?
Lilian Thuram
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* FOREWORD BY PASCAL BLANCHARD
Scientific curator of the exhibition
“To exhibit men and women, to place a distance
between them and visitors, to present them as
different and inferior, was to construct a kind of
divide between the normal and the abnormal, to
invent a break between two distinct forms of
humanity.”
The West invented the “savage”. It did so through spectacles,
with performers, stage sets, impresarios, drama and incredible
narratives. This story has been forgotten, and yet it stands at the
intersection of colonial history, the history of science and the
history of the world of entertainment and of the grandiose world’s
fairs that shaped international relations for over a century (1851–
1958).
This was the age of human exhibitions, the time of “scientific racism”, a time when men came to
see “monsters” or “exotics”, not for what they did, but rather for what they were supposed to be.
Beings that were different. Inferior beings. Others.
From a few individuals and “specimens” in the sixteenth century to the “ethnic shows” of the early
nineteenth century, like that of the famous “Hottentot Venus”, the West “recruited” new troupes,
families or artistes from all over the world, some of them by force, others by “contract”. The public
was curious, it was on the look-out for powerful sensations, and the spectacle of the “savage” fitted
the bill perfectly.
The phenomenon gained in scale throughout the nineteenth century, running parallel to colonial
conquest. In less than a generation, it went from a few isolated individuals held in captivity and
exhibited like animals to veritable organized troupes. Crowds flocked to see these displays and the
public called for more. Scientists set out “living specimens”. The West organized a huge theatre in
sets as extraordinary as they were ephemeral. In all, nearly one billion four hundred million visitors
were affected by this phenomenon, whether at world’s fairs or colonial exhibitions, in zoos, on
circus tours, in theatres or in fairground museums.
To exhibit men and women, to place a distance between them and visitors, to present them as
different and inferior, was to construct a kind of divide between the normal and the abnormal, to
invent a break between two distinct forms of humanity. This was a major process in contemporary
history that has been analyzed over the last two decades in several seminal works on human zoos.
This history has left us thousands of photographs, commercial postcards, official and amateur films,
promotional posters, paintings, prints, newspaper drawings and articles, each one more sensational
than the last. And, as we survey and decode them, we can measure the ways and the relatively short
period in which the idea of domination became general and permeated the world. Finally, thanks to
these images we can picture how public opinion was persuaded, deceived and manipulated by these
stagings of the savage put on from Tokyo to Hamburg, from Chicago to London, from Paris to
Barcelona, from St. Louis to Brussels and from Basel to Johannesburg.
Reading the analyses by the seventy specialists whose perspectives are brought to bear in the
catalogue, or walking round the exhibition, we come to understand how this huge freak show at the
heart of the capitalist system made “difference” into an invisible frontier between “Them” and
“Us”. We can now measure the extent to which racism, segregation and eugenist ideas were able to
penetrate public opinion, with no apparent violence, and while entertaining visitors. And we also
realize that in order to deconstruct our vision of the Other, we need to decolonize our own
imaginations.
Pascal Blanchard
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* FOREWORD BY NANETTE JACOMIJN SNOEP
Scientific curator of the exhibition
The exhibition Human Zoos. The Invention of the Savage and this accompanying catalogue reveal
an incredible quantity of artworks and artefacts shedding light on the long historical process behind
the fabrication of alterity and the “invention of the savage” over the centuries.
The musée du quai Branly, the Prado, the Louvre, the Muséum
National d’Histoire Naturelle, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the
National Portrait Gallery and many other museums, libraries,
universities and archives in Europe, Australia, Japan and the
Americas, too numerous to be cited here, not to mention important
private collections (like those of Gérard Lévy, of the ACHAC research
group, and Michael Graham-Stewart), all hold traces of this incredible
story.
“By giving them a name, a life and a history, we free
these people from the shackles in which they were
once held, restoring dignity to individuals who
suddenly found themselves thrust on stage in front of
a curious crowd simply because they were considered
different.”
Paintings, sculptures, posters, anamorphoses, casts made on live subjects, waxworks, automata,
magic lanterns, costumes and masks, daguerreotypes, photographs, postcards, plates, fans,
tablecloths, jigsaw puzzles, entrance tickets, brochures, advertising documents, films, songs,
puppets, dioramas and all kinds of surprising souvenirs were identified throughout the preparation
of the catalogue and exhibition and have been brought together for the first time in a single place,
around one unifying theme, thereby taking on a completely different meaning.
Displayed in cabinets of curiosities, on the boards at fairs or in the street, kept in scientific
laboratories or exhibited in a pavilion at a colonial exhibition or world’s fair – all these accessories
from the “theatre of the world” contributed to the creation of these spectacles of difference.
It might be thought that these images show only anonymous individuals. But no, many of these
“exhibits” have been identified; their names are known, as are the details of their highly varied and
incredible destinies. Now that the cloak of anonymity has been lifted thanks to the research carried
out over the last twenty years – notably by many of the contributors to this catalogue – it is at last
possible to write the history of these exhibitions mounted on every continent.
By giving them a name, a life and a history, we free these people from the shackles in which they
were once held, restoring dignity to individuals who suddenly found themselves thrust on stage in
front of a curious crowd simply because they were considered different.
Different because they were not the same colour or size; different because they came from faraway
lands.
To discover and present this vast heritage for the first time, to bring it “into the museum”, to
bestow tangible reality on this “living cabinet of curiosities of the world”, is to make them
concretely a part of contemporary history. To tell that tale, to identify, analyze and decipher these
testimonial objects, is to write the story of the construction of otherness and touch on a universal
phenomenon. This varied, multiple heritage challenges us and invites us to position ourselves in this
“theatre of the world” – either on stage, in the stalls, or in the wings.
Nanette Jacomijn Snoep
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* TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION
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INTRODUCTION
The first major exhibition with an international approach to what can be called "Human Zoos",
HUMAN ZOOS, The invention of the savage attempts to draw from obscurity these men, women,
children, hangers-on, animals, actors and dancers, by revealing their stories, which are as diverse
as they are forgotten.
A wide array of paintings, sculptures, posters, postcards, movies, photographs, mouldings, dioramas,
miniatures and costumes provide insight on the scope of the phenomenon and on the success of
the exotic performance industry, which captivated over a billion spectators who, between 1800
and 1958, marvelled at more than 35,000 individuals throughout the world.
The layout of this exhibition evokes a stage with its actors and accessories, through which a
particular script is played out. The wings on the other hand reveal the other side of the story and
present the fate of these human exhibits as well as the vast graphic production used to mould the
public’s image of the world.
The strange, the savage and the monster have always been the subject of intense curiosity. The
“other” puzzles, sparks interrogation and amazement and helps to conceptualize and situate
oneself. Often originating from some distant land, it is a concept that crystallizes the fears and
fantasies of a nation as well as its aspirations of domination. If all nations have used the concept of
alterity to construct their identity, the West remains unique in the sheer scale of its living-human
shows.
The genesis of these ethnic shows begins in earnest in 1492
when Christopher Columbus presents the Spanish Court with
six Indians after returning from his first voyage: Europe had
found her image of the “savage” in the face of the Amerindian
race. Until the beginning of the 19th century only a few so-called
“exotic” or “monstrous” individuals are exhibited – the famous
Hottentot Venus is but one example. However these ethnic
showcases rapidly expand in scale and reach their apogee
between the years 1850 and 1930.
It is when the display of the Other is used to alienate a nation (or
a so-called “race”) that the Exhibition partakes in the
construction of social exclusion and becomes the prototype of
the human zoo This mechanism is practiced world-wide: in
Europe, the United States, Japan, Australia and South Africa…
touching several hundreds of millions of visitors who flock to the
universal and colonial exhibitions, to the zoos, café-theatres,
circuses and fairs.
Anthropological collection. Red skins.
Photograph
of
Prince
Roland
Bonaparte © musée du quai Branly,
Racial theories, colonialism and the belief in Western superiority acquire a great deal of
legitimacy through these exhibitions. Exotic populations and freaks of nature become actors in
this “theatre of the world”, displayed side by side as if belonging to the same abnormal universe
and separated from the spectators by a real or imaginary barrier.
Through 600 items and the screening of many film archives, the exhibition shows how this type
of performance, when used as propaganda and entertainment, has fashioned the Western
perspective and deeply influenced a certain perception of the Other for nearly five centuries
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REPORTING,
COLLECTING,
DISPLAYING
ACT I – THE DISCOVERY OF THE OTHER
This first act presents the arrival of exotic people in Europe, from the 15
th
to the 18th century, and
the view of these "strange foreigners" according to the four archetypes presented: the savage, the
artist, the freak and the exotic ambassador.
As early as Ancient Egyptian times, “dwarfs” from the Sudan area are put on public display. Under
the Roman Empire, vanquished “Barbarians” and “Savages” are ceremoniously processed before the
people to assert Rome’s hegemony.
From the 15th century – the opening of the Age of Exploration – Europe’s idea of the “Other”
progressively takes on an exotic form, combining curiosity and animality with the unusual.
Cabinets of curiosity display not only objects from around the world but also portraits of these
“natural curiosities”.
To begin with, these “strange strangers” are few and generally
welcomed as exceptions. Explorers bring back “savages” as
“human booty” and present them to the European Courts,
hence the ceremonial display in 1550 of the Tupinamba Indians
before Henry II in Rouen or that of Omai, a famous Tahitian,
presented to the English Court in 1774. The visits of Siamese
and Persian ambassadors to the European Courts also produce
an impact upon the public and as a result their portraits remain
a long time in circulation throughout Europe
"Negro Head"
Painting by Jean-Antoine Gros, early 19th century
© musée du quai Branly, photo Patrick Gries
As for the “monsters” exhibited – dwarfs, giants, bearded women and other human miracles – be
they from Europe or some distant country, their portraits hang on the walls of such European
Palaces as the Château d’Ambras, home to Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg.
Exactly who the “other” is makes no difference, the effect remains the same: a feeling of
curiosity before such strange individuals, so different and so exotic. The exhibition is not yet a
genre. We are but at the very start of this phenomenon.
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TO OBSERVE,
CLASSIFY,
ORDER
ACTE II - MONSTERS & EXOTIC BEINGS
During the 19th century, the exhibition of the “Savage” is no longer reserved exclusively to the elite
classes. The phenomenon is democratised and offers itself to a wider public, marking the
beginning of a new type of exhibition. In an age where racial theories and the construction of
hierarchies dominate the intellectual climate, the exhibition – in which monstrosity and exoticism
combine – assumes a major role in shaping 19th century popular culture.
In 1800 the Society of the Observers of Man establishes one of
the earliest forms of anthropological study through the
examination of Victor of Aveyron – a savage feral child
discovered in 1797 – and of the Chinese Tchong-A-Sam.
However it is Saartje Baartman, the “Venus hottentote” who
eventually becomes the personification of this exhibition
phenomenon. This South-African young woman, exhibited in
London and Paris between 1810 and 1815 is at the crossroads
between an ever-growing passion for racial studies and public
curiosity.
New racist theories are consequently developed and spread
easily amongst the population. London becomes the capital of
these ethnic shows, with France, Germany and the United-States
following close behind. “Difference” which up till now had
merely been a subject of curiosity – be it healthy or unhealthy
– is transformed into a theory with a scientific basis. From
now onwards the exhibited “savage” is made to reflect a
preconceived image, an image constructed by society and
which responds to its expectations.
Henri Sicard, La Vénus Hottentote.
Jardin d’Acclimatation (Paris), musical score, 1888.
© Achac / Research group collection
Scene I : The construction of the notion of
“race”
The exhibitions of “Savages” base themselves on anthropological studies, which during the 19th
century, undergo a major development. The epoch seeks to understand, to classify and to order the
world within a hierarchal structure using the science of Man as its tool. Racial hierarchies become
the norm and living exhibits are compelled to fit into this codified model through which a
particular vision of the world is constructed.
These “living specimens” present an unparalleled opportunity for theorists
and intellectuals to carry out anthropological experiments, take
photographs and create wax casts. Characteristics such as eye colour, skin,
hair structure and cranial dimensions are observed and the results
obtained used to record and classify the so-called “races”.
It is within this context of western expansionism and scientific research
that sideshows find their raison d’être. The spectacles provide the tools
with which to comprehend the “savage” and class it within an objective,
ordered and rational hierarchy, going from the deviant, through to the
mad, the insane and finally the representatives of apparently inferior
races. At the same time, the Savage is associated with the subjective
popular imagery of the “Other” and “Elsewhere”, thus forming a coherent
system that embodies both intellectual discourse and popular stereotypes.
Natural history of mankind
Plate by Julien Joseph Virey
© musée du quai Branly
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Mouldings by the phrenologist Dumoutier, the first daguerrotypes, sculptures by Cordier,
anthropometric images and measuring instruments, piles of books on the idea of race and its
hierarchy are presented to the public in this scene.
Scene 2: The distant and the deformed put on stage
Exhibitions enjoy great popularity during the 19th century. Society delights in these spectacles
of difference, in which physical, psychological and geographic abnormalities intermix.
Circuses and fairs multiply throughout Europe and the United
States. Barnum and Bailey – two names now inevitably associated
with spectacles – are the precursors of this fashion in the United
States.
Barnum’s American Museum, in the heart of Manhattan, hosts the
state of New York’s most popular show. His novelty is the
showcasing of “monsters” within a space dedicated to pleasure;
“scientific conferences”, magic tours, dances and theatrical
reconstructions take place in concert under the same roof.
The Siamese twins Chang & Eng; the young micro cephalic Mexicans
entitled “the last Aztecs”; the mythical Krao from Laos – “Darwin’s
missing link” – suffering from an advanced form of hypertrichosis;
and the mentally disabled African American actor who performed as
Barnum’s “What Is It?”, are examples of individuals who represent
simultaneously both the world of freaks and the concept of
ethnicity.
Adrian Jeftichejev called the "Dog Man"
© musée du quai Branly
Figures considered to be “exotic” also begin to penetrate this universe in response to the
public’s thirst for evermore spectacular, novel and bizarre distractions. The exhibition of
indigenous individuals alongside freaks becomes a genre in its own right.
▀▄
ACTE III – THE SPECTACLE OF DIFFERENCE
TO RECRUIT,
EXHIBIT,
DIFFUSE
The exhibition of Zulus in London or that of Aboriginals in Paris during the second third of the 19th
century provide perhaps even more enthrallment than the bearded woman, Lilliputians or Siamese.
Here, entire races seemingly embody physical, cultural and mental abnormalities. “Difference” is
apparently not the exception but the norm within these cultures that are destined to be dominated,
controlled, colonised and eventually extinguished.
The “savage” becomes the feature that guarantees a show’s success. Impresarios – constantly on
the look-out for spectacular exhibits – stage countless numbers of shows in response to a high
public demand. Aboriginal, Pygmy and Indian families, Japanese acrobats, snake charmers and belly
dancers perform side by side on the stages of the great capital cities. Circuses, fairs and touring
exotic troupes showcase men, women and children from all four corners of the world: the exotic
show becomes a mass attraction.
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Roland Bonaparte, Australian Aborigine performance:
Billie, Jenny and their son Toby at the Folies-Bergère (Paris),
© musée du quai Branly
At a time when slavery gives place to imperialism, the world is divided between those who are
exhibited and those who spectate. Regardless of how objective or not they are these exhibitions
present so-called exotic populations as inferior to Europeans, Americans and Japanese and thus the
fitting subjects of colonial dominion.
Visitors are introduced to “actors of savageness” who become true genre professionals: Aboriginals,
‘lip-plate women’, Amazons, snake charmers, Japanese tightrope walkers or oriental belly
dancers, but also the first black clown in France called “Chocolat” and drawn by ToulouseLautrec and legendary Buffalo Bill, whose show revolves on the native American Indian archetype,
which forever brands the Far West imagery.
Scene I : The professionalization of the exhibitions
London is an obligatory stop to guarantee a troupe’s success. It
showcases the Botocudo Indians in 1817, a group of Sami
people in 1822, Fuegians in 1829, a group of Guyanese in 1839
as well as several Zulu groups, notably during an important
exhibition in 1853. This “Zulu Kaffir” exhibition is the first of
a series of major touring spectacles throughout Europe,
thereby inaugurating a trend that would last until the end of
the century.
Several sites, such as the Egyptian Hall in London, the FoliesBergères in Paris and the Panoptikum de Castan in Berlin,
dedicate themselves exclusively to these types of exhibitions
and launch spectacular poster campaigns to advertise their
shows. Plastered throughout the streets of New York, London,
Paris and Berlin the poster becomes the perfect medium
through which to diffuse the image of the live exhibit. To
ensure maximum selling potential, it generally depicts a halfnaked dancing figure with particular emphasis placed on the
skin colour and the person’s animal nature.
Jules Chéret, Poster 1878,
© Achac/ Research group collection
In Paris and throughout the whole of Europe and the United States, these shows are responsible for
constructing and developing a highly effective discourse surrounding the “Savage”.
The Savage, the “Other” is thus apprehended essentially through intellectual discourse and the
wealth of images in circulation. Yet if the “Other” remains the explicit subject of such
discourse, the “Self” is implicitly and inevitably evoked.
Scene 2: The Amerindian conquest of the world
It is only natural that the first “Indian” shows should be
produced in the United-States before being exported throughout
the rest of the world. The American George Catlin and the
Indian impresario Maungwuduas are responsible for introducing
this people to Europe during their tour of 1845 to 1848. It is at
this occasion that they are presented to King Louis-Philippe.
The myth surrounding the Indian people emerges at the end
of the 19th century. As a result, Amerindians become the
population the most exhibited throughout the world.
Work commissioned by king Louis-Philippe
following a dance performance
presented by the Indian tribe of George Catlin at the Louvre in 1845
© musée du quai Branly, photo Patrick Gries, Bruno Descoings
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“Far West” shows like Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and the spectacle produced by the impresario, Hans
Stosch Sarrasani, enjoy world-wide success. Specialised in historical re-enactments, these Americanborn showmen tour throughout the world and Europe’s greatest cities, developing a new form of
mass culture.
Their objective is to enthral their naïve audience with displays of the most savage of
individuals – often human-animal hybrids – set in a décor that evokes the Far West. Sitting Bull
and Geronimo, both famous for their resistance to the American army, also feature in the Wild West
Show, serving to suppress the memory of the massacres perpetrated during the Indian wars.
Scene 3 : Exotic Artists
If the Savage constitutes the symbol of a nation or a so-called “race”, a living specimen of a real or
imagined alterity, the “exotic” artist obscures this vision through the display of his artistic
talent or ability to entertain.
In many shows the boundary between ethnic exhibition and theatrical display is blurred with the
performers passing easily from one genre to the other. Criticism does however surface, notably in
August 1912 when Léon Werth expressed his shame in regards the public’s attitude: “All these
people who, during the week, have toiled over miserable tasks and for whom civilization is
merely human dressage, have the same instincts as a slave-trader”.
The Afro-American actor Ira Aldridge; the Cuban clown
Chocolat; Hanako the Japanese dancer, the West Indian
acrobat Miss Lala – who captivates Auguste Rodin and
Edgar Degas; the black face minstrels; the Afro-American
Josephine Baker; oriental belly dancers and royal
Cambodian dancers – the favourites of the universal
exhibitions – are testimony to the professional potential
of the “exotic”.
It is essentially through dance and by fulfilling the
public’s fantasies that exotic artists are able to impose
themselves in Europe.
From 1890 onwards, “exotic dances”, in which the body of
the “Other” becomes object of desire, proliferate across
Europe and notably in Paris.
L. Damaré, "Olympia. Les trois grâces tigrées" (The three striped graces),
Paris, poster, 1891.
© Achac/ Research group collection
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▀▄
ACTE IV – RACIAL AND COLONIAL STAGE SETS
TO EXHIBIT,
MEASURE,
PRODUCE
Excess, eclecticism and ephemeral reconstructions characterise this part of the exhibition, which is
illustrated by large format posters, miniature theatres, an automaton of a Zulu and a painted
frieze, archive film screenings and a huge number of photographs and postcards.
Three specific spaces are dedicated to the grand-scale
promotion of human and colonial exhibitions: zoological
gardens, itinerant villages and universal and colonial
exhibitions. Their success is measured by the number of
exhibits, the geographic scale of the event and most
importantly, by the number of visitors which is often in excess
of tens of millions.
Troupes often unite several hundreds of human exhibits,
generally paid to be displayed amidst exotic animals in an
elaborate setting that serves to transport the spectator into a
far away land and forget the reality of the colonial wars.
The first of these troupes are exhibited by the company
Hagenbeck in Hamburg in 1874 – the same year that Barnum
arrives in Europe from America. Several troupes are presented
during the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and again
in Paris in 1878.
"The Annamite Pavilion",
Marseille colonial exhibition,
L'illustration, press coverage, 1922.
© Achac/ Research group collection
Until the 1930s, the “exotic” is recreated through papier-mâché stage-sets in all the universal,
colonial and national exhibitions throughout the world. Ethnic villages, composed of itinerant
troupes directed either by westerners or, more rarely, retired “exhibitionists”, pass from one world
to the other, cross over boundaries and visit the remotest villages of Europe and America. In this
sense, the exhibition serves also to “construct nationalist feeling”, to build a sense of identity, of
pride, of national unity. It displays the negative counterpart of the European image, an image that
reassures the visitors of their modernity and “normality
Scene I : Zoological gardens
The vogue for zoos and gardens begins at the end of the 1820s
when three giraffes offered by the Egyptian pasha to the great
European powers are exhibited in London, Vienna and in Paris’
botanical garden. If the giraffes pique the public’s curiosity, the
people who accompany them are equally a source of fascination.
This human-animal duo consequently enjoys great success.
Towards the end of the 19th century, zoos and gardens tend to
focus increasingly on the sole exhibition of humans, as they
seek to seduce their public with the most attractive shows
possible. Set within a colonial context, this phenomenon is
popularised throughout Europe.
Everywhere, the savage is regarded as a character-type, whose
codified attributes are recognised by all. Zoological gardens –
where displays of humans showcased alongside animals are
advertised through striking posters – become a “must” in
popular entertainment.
Jardin zoologique d’Acclimatation,
Somali people.
Poster, 1890.
© Achac/ Research group collection
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Scene 2 : Exotic itinerant villages
Carl Hagenbeck, the director of Hamburg Zoo, develops the prototype of the itinerant village – a
concept soon adopted by the best part of the occidental world. His concept and troupes are
exported throughout Europe and America. French impresarios soon become specialised in this
genre, taking their own “Senegalese”, “Dahomeyans” and “Algerian Arabs” on tour to over twenty
countries.
The notion of the itinerant village, in which grand shows such as those produced by Buffalo Bill
and Barnum are adapted to smaller, provincial exhibitions, is a rather late development in the
phenomenon of display.
The public seem won over; the post-cards produced for
the occasion are sold by the performers themselves and
the money invested is made back within only two or three
years.
In an era where the norm imposes a unique type of
citizen, exotic villages are displayed alongside models of
European villages from Brittany, Flanders, Ireland and
Savoy as well as Ainu and Korean villages.
Champ de Mars in 1895
Exhibition organised by Joannès Barbier at
Lyon in 1894 and Rouen in 1896.
© musée du quai Branly
The exhibition of the other is an outward sign of grandeur and modernity and expresses the
desire for homogeneity. That countries such as Russia and Japan should refuse to let their people
partake in these ethnic spectacles affirms their aspiration to be identified with the occidental world.
The world’s borders are constructed within the confined spaces of these cheap reconstructions that
allow the spectator to leave boasting of having seen the “Savage”!
Scene 3 : Universal and colonial exhibitions
To see is to know, asserts the World’s Columbian Exhibition of
1893. Indeed, the Occident believes that these “fairground
monsters” have no other destiny but to be civilized by the
apparently “superior races”. Ever since London’s Universal
exhibition of 1851, in which India as England’s colony assumes
centre stage, universal and colonial exhibitions serve as
showcases of colonial expansionism, often injecting a scientific
discourse into the display of the dominated “savages”. France
and the United States are particularly adept in this domain,
producing a great number of exhibitions at least every ten years.
F. W. Siebold (ed.), "Tour of
Germany by the Kanak, from the
mysterious isles with their legends
of cannibals", Cologne, postcard,
1931. © Achac/ Research group
collection
From 1883, the colonial exhibitions provide the great powers with
the opportunity to display their domination over the world. In
certain cases these spectacles are produced within the empires
themselves (such as in Hanoi in 1901-2, in Calcutta in 1883 or in
Sydney in 1870). Within Europe, the most emblematic of these
displays are the British Empire Exhibition of 1924-25 held in
Wembley and the International Colonial Exhibition held in Paris in
1931.
The millions of images produced – the only remaining vestiges of this form of mass culture –
illustrate the sheer scale of the phenomenon and reveal a capitalist plot where “difference” is
exploited to construct an invisible frontier between “Them” and “Us”. One gages how racism subtly
penetrates public opinion, in a non-violent and entertaining manner.
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▀▄
EPILOGUE – A PROGRESS MOVEMENT DURING THE COURSE OF THE 1930S
The exhibition ends with the end of these exhibitions for various reasons that are the same across
the world: declining public interest, development of the film industry, new forms of imperial
propaganda etc.
The phenomenon of human and colonial exhibitions eventually disappears throughout the course of
the 1930s. Three reasons explain the speed with which this transformation takes place: the public
loss of interest, despite a greater emphasis on the notion of alterity and the shows’ increasingly
spectacular displays; the colonial powers’ desire to present the process of colonisation as being
firmly underway by excluding the “savage” de facto from representations of colonial triumph; and
the development of new media supports such as the cinema which captivate the public’s
imagination in novel ways.
The most brutal mode of display finally becomes obsolete. The “Other” is no longer considered as
the conquered “savage” but as the “pacified native” or an “exotic immigrant”, following the path of
progress that has been traced for him. The last of the European tours do not meet with great public
success – this is the case notably for the “Sara-Kaba lip-plate women” exhibited in Cologne in 193031.
The very last of these manifestations is held in Brussels in 1958 on the eve of the Congolese
Independence. However, criticism is such that the organizers are compelled to close the
Congolese village. The “human zoo” is finally extinct.
… To close the exhibition, Lilian Thuram, the general curator of the exhibition, has chosen a work
by the video artist Vincent Elka.
In a powerful and moving installation, placed within a box of 20 m2, the artist gives the word to the
stigmatized groups of today. On the three walls that make up the installation, these men and
women bear witness. How do they live on a daily basis? How do they position themselves compared
to others? Do they feel "other"?
"Through the testimonies of people suffering from active or passive discrimination, I quickly came to
realize that their accounts coincided and that there would be no confusion if I chose to telescope their
images and their words on the screens of the installation. As society set up its laws, they symbolically
came to personify the many faces of abnormality. An abnormality that still today justifies the
"accusations of heresy" and "blacklisting" of a former time. We don't marry them. We send them back
to their country. We don't recruit them. We don't let them come into nightclubs. We make fun of
them. We reject the pariah like a fairground freak."
Vincent Elka
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* CURATORSHIP OF THE EXHIBITION
© musée du quai Branly, photo Cyril Zannettacci
▀▄
General Curator: Lilian Thuram
Lilian Thuram has had a prestigious international football career: 1998 world champion, 2000
Europe Champion, second 2006 world champion are just a few of his numerous club titles. He was
involved in the 2007 musée du quai Branly exhibition titled Diaspora: he was featured in a movie by
director and curator Claire Denis to share his vision and experience on the diaspora.
In 2008, he created the Lilian Thuram Foundation, Education against racism (www.thuram.org).
He has written Mes Étoiles noires. De Lucy à Barack Obama (Philippe Rey, 2010 – Points, 2011).
▀▄
Scientific curators:
Pascal Blanchard - Historian, expert on colonialism, documentary film maker, associate researcher
with the CNRS (Communication and Policy Laboratory), co-chair of the Achac Research Group
(www.achac.com), member of the scientific committee of the Lilian Thuram Foundation, Education
against racism.
He has published or codirected several dozen books since 1993, including Zoos humains, au temps
des exhibitions humaines (La Découverte, 2004), La France Noire (La Découverte, 2011), Zoos
humains et exhibitions coloniales. 150 ans d’invention de l’autre (La Découverte, 2011) and the eight
books of Un Siècle d’immigration des Suds en France (GRA, 2009).
The exhibition was organised with the participation of teams from the research group ACHAC and
the support of its iconographic collections
Nanette Jacomijn Snoep – Anthropologist, curator of the Historical Collections of the musée du
quai Branly since 1999, She teaches the history of African art at Paris X University and at the école
du Louvre.
She was co-curator for 1931, the Foreigner at the time of the Parisian Colonial Fair, exhibition at the
Cité Nationale d’Histoire de l’Immigration in 2008 and codirected the exhibition catalogue.
In 2009, she was curator and catalogue director for Divine Recipes, exhibition presented by the
musée du quai Branly.
In 2012, she will be associate curator of the exhibition Masters of Chaos at the musée du quai Branly
(curator: Jean de Loisy).
▀▄
Design:
Léa Saito & Massimo Quendolo
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* AROUND THE EXHIBITION
▀▄ INTERNATIONAL
SYMPOSIUM “AROUND HUMAN ZOOS”
24 AND 25 JANUARY 2012
from 9.30 AM to 07PM / Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss / Free access sessions, subject to availability
In the presence and with the participation of Lilian Thuram (general curator of the exhibition),
Pascal Blanchard & Nanette Jacomijn Snoep (scientific curators of the exhibition), Gilles Boëtsch
(research director at the CNRS and co-director of the exhibition catalogue), and thirty international
specialists, all invited to provide different views of the phenomenon of exhibitions of freaks and
exotic people in Europe, the United States and Japan in the context of four themed round table
discussions.
The round table discussions, introduced by short presentations of each participant in order to give
each one their place in the exchanges and debates, will consider the following questions:
•
•
•
•
The construction of race and of a view of ethnographic exhibitions; the invention of the
"other"
Images and imaginings of the "savages" in exhibitions; a history of perspectives
Exhibition, colonisation and national construction; the impact of exhibitions
The savage, an ordinary construction; contemporary challenges.
This international conference, organised in collaboration with the Lilian Thuram Foundation for
Education Against Racism, the CNRS and the Achac Research Group, builds on previous
conferences on ethnographic and colonial exhibitions, organised at Marseille in 2001 (3 days),
London in 2008 (1 day), and prepares the ground for the following stages which will be held at the
University of Lausanne in May 2012 (2 days) and in Los Angeles in 2014 (4 days).
▀▄
THE CATALOGUE
DIRECTED
BY
PASCAL
BLANCHARD, GILLES BOËTSCH
ET NANETTE JACOMIJN
(ANTHROPOBIOLOGIST AND DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AT THE CNRS)
SNOEP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Stéphane Martin
Prefaces by Lilian Thuram, Pascal Blanchard and Nanette Jacomijn
Snoep
Introduction
Human Zoos. The Invention of the Savage
Part 1 • Origins & Evolutions
From Specimen to Stage: The Birth of a Genre
From Cabi nets of Curiosities to the Passion for the “Savage”
Savage Imagery
The Jardin d’Acclimatation, Zoos and Naturalization
Part 2 • Proliferation & Apogee
Ethnographi c Stage, Backdrop and Props
Exotic People in Universal Exhibiti ons and World’s Fairs (1851-1937).
Colonial Exhibiti ons or The Invention of “Natives”
Theatre, Circus and Cabaret or Blurring the Lines (1850-1930)
Part 3 • Developments & Legacies
From Postcard to Cinematograph: Inventing Reality
Travelling Villages or the Democratization of the “Savage”
The Demise of Ethnic Exhibitions
The Human Zoo as (Bad) Intercultural Performance
A joint publication by Actes Sud and the Musée
du Quai Branly - 384 pages, 500 illustrations - 49€
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▀▄
SPECIAL ISSUE
On the occasion of the exhibition, Beaux Arts magazine monthly is publishing a special 44 page
publication including around 80 illustrations, 9 €
▀▄
THE AUDIO GUIDE
For whom are we the "savage"? How have these human zoos and performances shaped the West's
view of the Other? How can we view these images more critically?
Lilian Thuram guides visitors by means of a stimulating audio guide to help them discover
these images that straddle the space between exotic and freakish, science and voyeurism,
exhibition and performance.
Audioguide french and english versions, 5€
The audio guide for the exhibitions is downloadable at www.quaibranly.fr, for 3€
The iPhone guide is available in french and english on the App Store. Downloading fee : 2,99€
▀▄ EXHIBITION
GUIDED TOUR
- Guided visits (1h)
Various tours, all accessible to handicapped visitors, are available, subject to reservation, to
individual visitors, adult and school groups (secondary schools from 11 years of age).
Cultural mediation students are available to the public to explain their visit to the museum and its
collections. Positioned throughout the different geographic areas of the Main Collection space and
in the exhibition HUMAN ZOOS, The invention of the savage, they can be recognized by their special
t-shirts.
Permanent collections, on presentation of museum entry tickets
Saturday and Sunday from 01 PM to 6 PM.
▀▄
LE BEFORE EXHIBITIONS
01/06/2012 – From 7 pm to 8.30 pm
The museum invites you to explore a new world and really get the weekend started! BEFORE is the
first part of the festive evening mixing performance, demonstration and workshops to discover the
numerous cultures represented at the museum.
From 7 pm to 8.30 pm, the BEFORE offers visitors the chance for a VIP exploration of HUMAN
ZOOS, The invention of the savage accompanied by the speakers involved, before experiencing
alternative performances that plunge them into a universe reinterpreted by the artists of today.
Free event
Free access sessions, subject to availability
▀▄ THE
QUESTION BOX
The musée du quai Branly offers visitors to HUMAN ZOOS, The invention of the savage a "question
box". In place of the traditional comment book, visitors may use a multimedia terminal to leave a
message, whether written, drawn or video (of a maximum duration of 60 seconds) or to look at the
comments of other visitors and the exhibition curators.
A selection of messages left by visitors and the responses provided by the curators will be accessible
via www.quaibranly.fr during the period of the exhibition
Free access in the exhibition space.
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▀▄
PEDAGOGICAL ACTIONS
A special edition of the educational review "Texts and Documents for the Class" : « Exhibitions.
L'invention du sauvage » Number 1023, 1st November 2011 (available by means of subscription
or purchase of the edition through the SCEREN network).
Every fifteen days, the review TDC offers a complete issue dedicated to a theme chosen from the
arts, literature, history, geography, science or civic education.
Intended principally for teachers at primary and secondary level, but also for older pupils, students,
trainers and parents of pupils, this magazine is composed of several well-illustrated articles
(including a central poster), produced by specialists, and educational sequences founded on primary
and secondary programmes designed and produced by teachers in the field
Two voices : conferences intended for secondary school pupils
The musée du quai Branly invites two personalities for a conversation with secondary school pupils.
From January 2012 this cycle examines the historical challenges and contemporary echoes of
"Exhibitions, the invention of the savage".
Programme and registration at www.quaibranly.fr under the heading "teachers".
▀▄
CINEMA
In connection with the exhibition, the museum offers twenty screenings of documentaries, fiction
and archive films examining different figures or subjects linked to the exhibitions and to human
zoos, such as the history of Sarah Baartman, the Hottentot Venus; the figure of Buffalo Bill, that of
Josephine Baker or of the Bontoc warrior. (Programming in progress)
From Thursday 01/26 to Sunday 01/29. Saturday 02/04 and Sunday 02/05
Two special screening-debate sessions 23 March and 6 April 2012
Museum cinema room
Free access sessions, subject to availability
"Zulu mealtime"
This group of Zulu travelled from Cape Town to London in May 1853.
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* HISTORY AND PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEE DU
QUAI BRANLY
▀▄ HISTORICAL
COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEE DU QUAI BRANLY
The musée du quai Branly has a "History" heritage unit composed of graphic arts, paintings,
sculptures and artefacts relating to the history of discoveries and voyages, European expansion and
exchanges and cross-fertilization from the 16th century until the 1930s. Part of this collection was
inherited from the musée de l'Homme and the former musée national d’Arts d’Afrique et
d’Océanie. Enhanced by significant acquisitions since 2006, this collection now includes nearly
8,000 extremely varied works.
The diversity of the techniques demonstrated is equalled by the variety of representations:
dioramas dating from the colonial exhibition of 1931, watercolours by sailors from the 18th and 19th
centuries representing landscapes and people from all over the world, drawings from trips by
famous artists such as Paul Gauguin or Henri Matisse to Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands,
orientalist paintings or sketches by explorers in Africa, colonial busts, puzzles, miniatures, portraits
of Indians by George Catlin, imaginary images of the American Indians as they were imagined in the
16th century...
These works constitute as many historical stories capable of informing us about the evolution of
western visions of the Other according to the place and the period. They are also a powerful
reminder of the fundamental role that these images continue to play in our imagination.
In this regard, the wealth of iconography held by the museum on the representation of slavery
constitutes a resource rich in lessons for today.
Nanette Jacomijn Snoep is the curator of the Historical Collections of the musée du quai Branly
▀▄ PHOTOGRAPHIC
COLLECTIONS
The musée du quai Branly holds some 700,000 old and contemporary photographs, which constitute
an international reference collection.
A photographic legacy:
580,000 photographs came from the photographic collection of the musée de l'Homme, and 70,000
from the library of the former Musée National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie, to which can be
added new acquisitions, of which there have been 50,000 since 1998. Numerous photographs date
from the invention of the photographic process.
The period 1840-1870 is represented in particular by a set of daguerreotypes illustrating the first
uses of photography in anthropology.
The photographs contain as many points of view as their authors; military personnel, explorers,
wealthy travellers and scientists. The images from 1920-1930 correspond to the emergence of
French ethnology. Alongside the ethnologists, professional photographers are also present.
Geographically, the strong points of the collection are the Americas, in particular Mexico, Peru and
Brazil; equatorial and western Africa; Polynesia, Melanesia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Christine Barthe is the curator of the photographic collection of the Musée du Quai Branly
A graphic arts exhibition area will open shortly within the Main Collections space and will
enable visitors to discover the wealth of the History and Photographs collections.
The collection of the History heritage unit is also very often approached for loans in France and
abroad or in the context of temporary exhibitions in the musée du quai Branly, such as
"Regarding the Other" in 2006, "Planet Métisse" in 2007 or today in "Human Zoos. The Invention
of the Savage".
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* LILIAN THURAM FOUNDATION - EDUCATION AGAINST RACISM
One is not born racist; one becomes racist. This truth is the cornerstone
of the Education Against Racism Foundation. Racism is above all an
intellectual construction. We must be conscious that History has
conditioned us, from generation to generation, to see ourselves above all
as Black, White, Mahgrebi, Asian...
It is important to understand how our prejudices have developed to be able to deconstruct them.
Our societies must integrate the simple idea that the colour of one's skin or the sex of a person
does not in any way determine their intelligence, the language they speak, the religion they
practice, their physical capacities, or what they love or hate. Each of us is capable of learning
anything, bad as well as good.
"The question of sexual inequality is eminently political. This model of inequality is the matrix for all
other regimes of inequality."
Françoise Héritier, member of the scientific committee of the Foundation
"We possess a unique origin: we were all originally Africans, born three million years ago, and that
should encourage us to fraternity."
Yves Coppens, member of the scientific committee of the Foundation
The activities of the foundation are based on the expertise of its scientific committee,
composed of Françoise Héritier, anthropologist; Yves Coppens, palaeoanthropologist; Marie Rose
Moro, child and adolescent psychiatrist; Doudou Diène, legal expert and United Nations special
reporter on contemporary forms of racism (2002-2008); Evelyne Heyer, human population
geneticist; Ninian Hubert Van Blyenburgh, anthropologist and didactician; Elisabeth Caillet,
museologist; Michel Wieviorka, sociologist; Françoise Vergès, political scientist; Tzvetan Todorov,
philosopher and historian; Pierre Raynaud, public policy development engineer; Carole Reynaud
Paligot, historian; Pascal Brice, diplomat; Pascal Boniface, geopolitical scientist; Lluis Sala
Molins, philosopher; Pascal Blanchard, historian; Patrick Estrade, psychologist and André
Magnin, exhibition curator.
Among the actions developed since the creation of the Foundation in 2008:
- Activities in schools, secondary schools and French and overseas universities
- Conferences and debates
- Participation in television and radio broadcasts
- The Thuram Challenge in Seine-et-Marne
- Support for manifestations against discrimination
- Participation in the European Education against Racism movement with the Council of Europe
- Publication of the book My black stars, from Lucy to Barack Obama which won the 2010 Seligmann
Prize against Racism (Ed. Philippe Rey, January 2010, Ed. Points, May 2012.)
- The design and execution of the educational tool Us Others (Nous Autres), a multimedia education
programme against racism for primary school teachers and pupils, sent free of charge to schools
upon registration at www.commandedvdnousautres.com/
The Foundation is supported by CASDEN, MGEN, the FC Barcelona Foundation and the Conseil
Général of Seine-et-Marne.
Fondation Lilian Thuram - Éducation contre le racisme
BP 70450 - 75769 PARIS CEDEX 16 – France
President : Lilian Thuram
Vices Presidents : Juan Campmany et Rafael Vila San Juan
Director : Lionel Gauthier
Contact : [email protected]
21
PRATICAL INFORMATION : WWW.QUAIBRANLY.FR
Images for the press: http://ymago.quaibranly.fr.
Monthly press password available upon request.
* CONTACTS
Press contact :
Musée du quai Branly contacts:
Pierre LAPORTE Communication
Ph: 33 (0)1 45 23 14 14
Nathalie MERCIER
Magalie VERNET
Communication Director
Manager of medias relations
Ph : 33 (0)1 56 61 70
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Ph : 33 (0)1 56 61 52 87
[email protected]
* EXHIBITION PARTNERS
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